Yemeni Civil War (1994)

The Yemeni Civil War (4 May-7 July 1994) was a civil conflict fought between the pro-Western and nationalist government of North Yemen and the socialist and separatist government of South Yemen for two months in 1994. The Sunni north and Shi'ite south of Yemen had been officially reunited in 1990 after the end of the Cold War, and a unificiation of the political and economic systems of the two countries was set to occur over the course of 30 months. In April 1993, elections were held for the newly-united parliament, but many South Yemenis felt that they had been economically marginalized, and that the Yemeni Socialist Party's supporters had been subjected to violence from northerners. Political deadlock continued into 1994, and the armies of North and South Yemen gathered on the frontiers. On 27 April, North Yemeni and South Yemeni tanks clashed at Amran, near the capital of Sana'a, and the South Yemeni air force responded by bombing Sana'a itself with aircraft and Scud missiles, which was followed by the North Yemeni bombing of Aden. On 21 May 1994, South Yemen regained its full independence, and North Yemeni forces responded with an invasion. The North Yemeni forces captured the key city of Ataq and its oil fields on 24 May, and North Yemeni forces - supported by the followers of the ousted South Yemeni president Ali Nasir Muhammad - took Aden on 7 July 1994. The top southern military and political leaders went into exile, and the Yemeni Socialist Party would lose most of its influence under Saleh's united Yemen government.